The importance of Training & Development to an organization

Impact of Training on Employees

Organizations  are  finding ways  to  make the  employees specialized  rather  than  a  generalized  one,  while  rest of  the  organizations  consider training as an investment on employees and expect a return in the form of commitment and retention (Kadir 2012). Fheili (2007) believes that organizations are not interested in providing training's that are generalized  in  nature. They are focusing on specialized training's which is relevant to a specific task and make the employees unfit for competitors use. They are limiting employees’ ability to switch to another job in an  industry. Organizations  are  finding ways  to  make the  employees specialized  rather  than  a  generalized  one,  while  rest of  the  organizations  consider training as an investment on employees and expect a return in the form of commitment and retention (Kadir 2012).

In my career at Hatton National Bank PLC as a banker I have attended several training programmes & completed online training courses in E-Learning module which is In house developed learning system for staff.  HNB was one of the first organizations to introduce E-learning for its staff. The first E-learning system was developed in-house in 2005 and was the recipient of a Silver Award in the "In-House Applications" category at the National Best Quality Software Awards 2007 conducted by the British Computer Society.

Over the years HNB has progressively used E-learning to strengthen its training and development function. During 2014, 37% of pedagogic training was replaced by virtual learning through the E- learning portal. Mindful of the changing work scenarios with more and more millennial's joining the workforce, HNB has tried to place training on a platform that would appeal to the younger members of its staff and made a strategic decision to make learning seamless.

Organizations are following many retention strategies and in a process to find the most appropriate one  that  suits  best  with  an  organization’s  environment.    For  most  of  the organizations  the  problem  remains  still  under consideration that  whether  there is  a significant impact  of  training on  employee retention  or not.

Importance and Effectiveness of Training and Development

Armstrong (2001) states that “Training is systematic development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required by an individual to perform adequately a given task or job”. Flippo (1984) has defined as, “Training is the act of increasing knowledge and skills of an employee for doing a particular job.”

Casse & Banahan (2007) narrates that the different Viewed to training and development need to be explored. It has come to their attention by their own preferred model and through experience with large Organizations. The current traditional training continuously facing the challenges in the selection of the employees, in maintaining the uncertainty related to the purpose and in introducing new tactics for the environment of work and by recognizing this, they advising on all the problems, which reiterates the requirement for flexible approach.

Training is an effective investment necessary in any organization. There is need for technical training & behavioral training among staff members. These training make employee feel confident and good. Many positive outcomes result among staffs after they attend training (Ganesh & Indradevi 2015). These training's are needed at every stage of professional life to enhance and update knowledge and widen the technical competencies. Training is successful when there is an involvement and interest among the employees (Ahamed 2013). Organizations’ take a long term view of investment in people and commit resources to provide professional and quality programmes for employees, designed to meet their growing aspirations as well as business needs. These programmes extend beyond job training to capacity building for leadership, supporting career progression and personal development of the employee (Ahamed 2013).

Individual Benefits from Training and Development Program

Career Competencies

Employees get a lot of benefits from the employee training and development program. They learn the soft and technical skills as required by their jobs. In last 30 years unemployment is at its lowest rates which is not beneficial for the workers to start new job, if opportunities for growth are fewer (Dobbs 2000). Fresh university graduates mostly considering for a firm which provides intensively training programs to their employees, but this idea is risky for organizations to lose fresh trained employees with couple of years (Feldman 2000).

Employee Satisfaction

Employees have no feeling about their organizations, if they think that their organizations are not caring about them (Garger (1999). Companies which are willing to spend money on their employees, give value to work with those companies, even though that investment eventually benefits the organization (Wilson 2000). Companies which are providing the training and development programs for their employees are achieving high level of employee satisfaction and low employee turnover (Wagner 2000). Training increase organization’s reliability for the reason that employees recognize their organization is spending in their future career (Rosenwald 2000).

Employee Performance

Employee Performance Training effects on behavior of employees and their working skills which resulted in enhanced employee performance and further constructive changes (Satterfield and Hughes 2007) that serves as increase employee performance (Kraiger 2002).

Organizational Benefits from Training and Development Program

Market Growth

Employee development programs are important for any organization to stay solvent and competitive in the market. Though it is expensive for the organization to spend the money on their employees but this investment is positive for the organizations to hold the place in the market. American Society for Training and Development mentioned two motives that are significant for employee’s knowledge, first employees identify the worth of training and marketable by organization and second CEOs of the companies understand that how fast information is transferring in current business environment. (Fenn 2000).

Organizational Performance

Training has been defined as mainly contributing factor to the organizational effectiveness Schuler and MacMillan (1984). Exploration on this topic recommends that investment in training and development program can be justified by the impact it creates to developed individual and organizational effectiveness Bartel (2000)

Employee Retention

The research described that employee retention is a challenging notion and there is no particular method to retain employees with the organization. Several organizations have revealed that one of the characteristic that help to retain employee is to offer them opportunities for improving their learning (Logan 2000). Therefore, it has confirmed that there is strong relationship between employee training and development, and employee retention (Rosenwald 2000).

Conclusion

To make training more effectiveness organization requires to look at those training & development is associated with the particular department should first motivate employees to learn acquire new skills & knowledge. Different level of training is to be kept to different level of man power. Since employees in an organization will be able to perform their duties and can make meaningful contribution to the success to the organization goals. Training activities can also be beneficial other than the individual and the team level. Training will have the greatest impact when it is bundled with the organization objectives, Core Values. While supporting the staffs and taking above all cases into consideration it is said that training and development creates a win situation for the employees and for organization too.

References

• Ahamed, U (2013) Impact on Training on Employee retention, Case Business School
• Armstrong M, A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, Kogan Page, 8th Ed. (2001)
• Bartel, A.P. (2000). Measuring the Employer’s Return on Investment in Training: Evidence from the Literature. Industrial Relations, 39, 3, 502–524.
• Dobbs, K. (2000, April). Tires Plus takes the training high road. Training, 37 (4), 56-63.
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• Ganesh M, Dr Indradevi R, (2015) Importance and Effectiveness of Training and Development, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy
• Garger, E. M. (1999, November). Goodbye training, hello learning. Workforce, 78 (11), 35-42.
• Kraiger K. (2002). Decision-based Evaluation. In Creating, Implementing, and Maintaining Effective Training and Development: State-of-the-Art Lessons for Practice, ed. K Kraiger, pp. 331–75. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
• Logan, J. K. (2000, April). Retention tangibles and intangibles: More meaning in work is essential, but good chair massages won’t hurt. Training and Development, 54 (4), 48-50.
• Rosenwald, M. (2000, October 15). Working class: More companies are creating corporate universities to help employees sharpen skills and learn new ones. Boston Globe, H1.
• Schuler, R.S., and MacMillan, I.C. (1984). Gaining Competitive Advantage through Human Resource Management Practices. Human Resource Management, 23, 3, 241–255.
• Wilson, C. (2000, July 26). More companies recognize the impact of learning centers. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, C8. • Zik
• Wagner, S. (2000, August). Retention: Finders, keepers. Training and Development, 54 (8), 64.